In the final part of my unintentional gangster news trilogy, it seems - according to Gamespot - that Midway has canned its Fear and Respect game, another urban gangsta shooter, this time given dubious authenticity through the involvement of ex-Crips member Snoop Dogg and Boyz N The Hood director John Singleton. The report claims that Midway is still working with the two stars, but this particular project is on the backburner.
Apparently, no reason has been given for the cancellation. Perhaps Singleton, who brought worldwide attention to the tragic fate of young black males in the ghettos of LA, thought twice about trivialising their predicament in a game that could surely only ever end up glorifying gang violence.
However, a quote from Midway CEO David Zucker, suggests otherwise:
"I think we're at a juncture in the video game business. Everyone's talking about it. How many times are you going to give me the 16th iteration of...I'm not even going to talk about the other products," Zucker explained. "The 20th iteration of a driving game isn't going to keep the industry growing."
What?! An upper-echelon videogame executive has realised that churning out genre wannabes is not a great business model?! Alan Rusbridger, sir - hold the front page!
